Philips and TPVision launched their new TV line-up for the first half of 2017, adding a new OLED model and promising more surprises in the second half of the year.

The big news at the Philips TV Launch 2017 in Madrid was the announcement of the 9002 OLED 4K Ultra HD TV, although there were some other interesting announcements too. What was surprising was that Philips are using IPS panels on all the TVs that they announced for the first half of 2017. The company admitted that an IPS panel doesn’t deliver as a good a contrast performance as the VA alternative but they said that this range was aimed at families who place more importance on wider viewing angles than deeper black levels.

However Philips did say that they would announce a new premium LED LCD range at IFA for the fourth quarter of 2017. We expect this to be the 8000 Series, since Philips only announced 6000, 7000 and 9000 models at the Madrid event. Based on various comments by Philips representatives, we expect this new 8000 Series to use a VA panel and have a direct LED backlight, we also expect it to use Quantum Dot (QD) and be Ultra HD Premium certified by the UHD Alliance. Philips demonstrated a prototype QD VA panel which was using a direct LED backlight with local dimming and 1,000nits of peak brightness. The demo was very impressive with deep blacks, precise local dimming and a wider colour gamut.

HLG Support

Philips already supports High Dynamic Range (HDR) in the form of HDR10 and they will be including Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) with their 2017 line-up. The company will also said that they will add HLG to their 2016 HDR TVs when they update Android from Lollipop to Marshmallow. The existing 901F OLED TV already uses Android M, so it will probably have HLG added earlier. Philips had two 901Fs setup, one was showing SDR footage and the other one was showing the same footage in HLG and the differences were quite pronounced. The HLG footage did look a bit dimmer but the deeper blacks and the brighter highlights gave the image greater depth and the richer colours resulted in a superior picture that appeared more detailed.

No Dolby Vision

Philips said that they currently have no plans to adopt Dolby Vision because they feel that HDR10 and HLG will already give you access to all the available HDR content and they also believe that they can deliver a superior HDR performance without any assistance from Dolby. However Philips also said that they are still monitoring Dolby Vision and are particularly interested in the possible benefits of dynamic metadata and there was no technical reason why they couldn’t add Dolby Vision to some of their models via a firmware update.

Android M

In terms of Smart TV there will be some lower tier models that use a Linux based platform but the majority of their 4K TVs will use Android. The platform will include both Netflix and Amazon with 4K HDR and Philips will be adding Freeview Play. Although the latter will delay the release of their new TVs, with the Linux models arriving in June and the Android models hitting stores in July. Philips also demonstrated a prototype of their Android platform that allowed control via Google Assistant using a Google Home speaker (which currently only available in the US). Google Assistant will be added to Android N phones in the UK soon and the demo gave a tantalising glimpse of the near future.

P5 Image Processing Engine

One of the big announcements was Philips’s new P5 image processing engine, which promises to bring both a 25% increase in processing features and a 25% increase in processing power to give an overall 50% performance gain when compared with the existing Perfect Pixel Ultra HD engine. Increased system integration has seen the chipset reduce from the three chips found in the Perfect Pixel Ultra HD system to just one in the P5. This reduction in chips allows for faster transfer of data with better timing and improved control over the whole processing sequence. The P5 will also offer both new features and improvements to existing processes in four of the five areas controlled by the processing engine including: Source quality, Sharpness, Colour and Contrast - while in the fifth area, the existing Motion Estimation function, Perfect Motion processing and scanning backlight are considered to already offer market leading motion performance.

A lot of work has gone into ensuring that the processing suite receives a perfect, corrected source input, an essential development with the arrival of HDR content and high-light-output displays. The combination of additional processing and improved power allows the new P5 engine to surpass the performance of the legendary, multi-award winning Perfect Pixel Ultra HD engine that is still widely considered to be one of the best processing suites on the market. P5 offers a significant improvement in PQ performance and, when used in combination with the latest OLED technology in the new 9002 set, can truly claim to offer new reference quality images.

9000 Series

Philips will continue to sell the 55POS901F in 2017 but they have now added the 55POS9002. This new model uses a native 100Hz OLED panel and will initially come in a 55-inch screen size, although a 65-inch version is being considered. It will support High Dynamic Range – specifically HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), is Ultra HD Premium certified by the UHD Alliance and can deliver 750 nits of peak brightness, along with 99% of DCI-P3. The new TV will also include Android M with quad-core processing and boasts Freeview Play and a newly designed remote control. The TV uses a high-end European design with a narrower brushed aluminium ‘cradle’ stand, a super-narrow bezel and a razor thin chassis. The 9002 drops the forward-firing speakers used on the 901F and has built-in downward-firing drivers instead. Since this is a flagship Philips TV it also includes 3-sided Ambilight and it uses the new P5 image processing engine. The 9002 will be available in the July and although pricing has yet to be confirmed, we expect it to be less than the 901F.

7000 Series

The next TV in the new line-up is the 7502 which is an LCD TV that uses a native 100Hz IPS panel and edge LED backlighting. The 7502 will be available in 49-, 55- and 65-inch screen sizes and incorporates a forward-firing ‘Visible Sound’ soundbar with triple ring drivers and 45W of amplification. The 7502 includes 3-sided Ambilight, Android M, quad-core processing, a newly designed remote and the P5 imaging engine. It supports HDR10 and HLG with 400nits of peak brightness and a wider colour gamut. The 7502 also has Freeview Play, 16GB of internal memory and the option to add more memory via an external HDD. The new TV has a dark brushed aluminium bezel and an elegant open frame central stand. The 7502 will be available in July but pricing has yet to be confirmed.

6000 Series

Then we have the 6400 Series, starting off with the 6482, which is an LCD TV that uses a native 50Hz IPS panel with direct LED backlighting. It will be available in 49- and 55-inch screen sizes and incorporates a ‘Visible Sound’ soundbar with 25W of amplification and 3-sided Ambilight. There’s also Android M, quad-core processing, Freeview Play, a simplified remote, Pixel Plus Ultra HD image processing and Micro Dimming Pro. It supports HDR10 and HLG with 400nits of peak brightness and a wider colour gamut. The TV has an ultra slim chassis with a light silver bezel. The 6482 will be available in July, with pricing yet to be announced.

The next TV in the 6000 Series is the 6412 which is an LCD TV that uses a native 50Hz IPS panel with direct LED backlighting. It will be available in 43-, 49-, 55- and 65-inch screen sizes and incorporates downward-firing drivers with triple ring technology and 20W of amplification. It has 2-sided Ambilight, Android M, quad-core processing, Freeview Play, a simplified remote, the Pixel Plus Ultra HD image engine and Micro Dimming Pro. It also supports HDR10 and HLG with 350nits of peak brightness. The TV has an ultra slim design with a narrow silver bezel and an open ‘cradle’ stand. The 6482 will also be available in July, with pricing yet to be announced.

Moving down the 6000 Series range we have the 6262 which is an LCD TV that uses a native 50Hz IPS panel with direct LED backlighting. It will be available in 43-, 49- and 55-inch screen sizes and possibly a 65-inch screen size as well. It incorporates downward-firing drivers and 2-sided Ambilight, along with a Linux smart platform, quad-core processing, Freeview Play, a simplified remote, the Pixel Plus Ultra HD image engine and Micro Dimming. It also supports HDR10 and HLG with 350nits of peak brightness. The 6262 has a slim design with a narrow silver bezel and will be available in June, with pricing yet to be announce

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